The operational availability of an aircraft and control of the maintenance costs is a major factor within the context of operating the aircraft, for example by an airline company for commercial purposes. In particular, one of the most critical systems in terms of availability and maintenance of an aircraft is its engine(s), each being composed of a multitude of pieces of equipment, which are all the more numerous the more complex the engine.
The maintenance of an engine, which is necessary in order to repair and/or prevent breakdowns, is essential for the satisfactory functioning of the aircraft, but generates substantial costs, and generally gives rise to the immobilisation of the aircraft, thus reducing its availability.
The maintenance operations of aircraft engines have developed over a period of time, changing from so-called “run to failure” maintenance (i.e. use until breakage takes place, without monitoring), to so-called “on condition” maintenance, in which for example the occurrence of failures is predicted by monitoring certain values which make it possible to indicate the start of erratic functioning of the engine (threshold value exceeded, absence of feedback from a sensor, inspection criterion met, etc.). This “on condition” maintenance makes it possible to greatly reduce the repair costs, by repairing the engine when it has failed, but before the breakage of one of its components.
However, this type of maintenance generates unscheduled maintenance operations which disrupt the use of the aircraft. Within the context of commercial use, this can give rise in particular to flights being delayed or cancelled.
Thus, it is necessary to reduce as far as possible the time necessary for this maintenance, in order to increase the availability of the aircraft. A large part of the time necessary for this maintenance is devoted to searching for and isolating at least one faulty piece of equipment to be replaced or repaired. In particular, this search and this isolation are carried out by a mechanic who is guided by a maintenance manual.
Solutions have been provided in the prior art in order to automate some of the tasks necessary for the search for and isolation of the faulty equipment. However, these solutions generally require the intervention of a mechanic, who must carry out tests and answer questions, following either a procedure or instructions obtained from the system which make the automation possible. In addition, these solutions generally incorporate knowledge bases which were set when the engine was delivered, and do not make it possible to update the knowledge bases, in particular on the basis of feedback from experience of maintenance operations carried out. Finally, these solutions are generally integrated in a computer of the aircraft, and do not make it possible to use the same tool on a plurality of different aircraft which would use the same engine.